What is a brand really worth in hard cash?

Suppose you came from another planet where most things are similar to earth except for one thing: there are no brands. Your planet wants to change this and you’ve been sent to buy some of earth’s most valuable brands.

”I’d like to buy your brand, Goggle.”

”You mean Google…”

”That’s the one. I heard it’s one of the best. How much do you want for it?”

”According to Forbes, the Google brand is valued at $57,000,000,000 .”

”OK, let’s itemize this so I can tell my people what I’m getting. Let’s start with the physical buildings, you have some nice ones I’ve heard. What buildings do I get for that price?”

”None.”

”What about servers?”

”Not included.”

”Algorithms, code…”

”Not a line, sorry”

”PC’s, office chairs..?”

”No..”

”Pencils…?”

”You can have mine.”

”So what do I get?”

”A name that is recognized, admired and trusted by 5 billion people. For $57 billion you buy a place in the hearts and minds of almost everyone on earth.”

”Come to think of it, that’s a pretty good deal…”

Today, a good brand can account for up to half of the value of a company. Profit and loss, factories and buildings are still important, but the world economy is putting greater and greater monetary value on emotional intangibles.

This is simply because we buy based on how we feel about a brand more than on what we know about the product.

We don’t buy what we need.

We buy who we want to be.

When you sell a product, you sell features.

When you sell a brand you sell an experience, an identity, a personality.

”So what’s in it for me?”

The answer is both simple and complicated. We all sell products or services. How much we can charge for them is to a large extent based on the value of the brands we create around them. That’s the simple part.

The complicated part is how we create those brands. Brands with personality, values, authenticity. Personality, values and authenticity have always been valuable, the difference is that now we’ve put a cash price on them. As the gap between products and brands broadens this price will undoubtedly go up.

The winners will be those who capitalise on this and make every point of contact a consumer has with the brand about personality, values and authenticity, from ads to icons, logos to links. (Even how a receptionist picks the phone up although in this case Google don’t pick the phone up!)